Freddie Roach Predicts Khan Will KO Maidana

Amir Khan’s trainer, Freddie Roach, is confident his man will score a late knockout over power-puncher Marcos Maidana next Saturday (December 11).

Going into this WBA, 140 pound title match, the main question has been whether Amir Khan’s chin can withstand Maidana’s power. Despite a string of wins, including over Andriy Kotelnik and Paulie Malignaggi, Khan’s career continues to be haunted by an embarrassing 1st round KO to Breidis Prescott in 2008.

Roach, who began training Khan after that loss, believes he’s molded a new fighter that’s a class above Maidana. He sees Khan delivering a slow beating that Maidana won’t be able to handle late into the fight. Then, Roach says, Khan will turn from boxer to aggressive finisher.

“We’re ready for the fight and have the game plan down,” Roach earlier today in a conference call. “We will go after Maidana sometime in the fight, but after we break him down. That’ll take some rounds because he’s a durable guy. But we will break him down and knock him out in the late rounds.”

Maidana’s last fight was against DeMarcus Corley, in what was supposed to be a stay busy fight against a past prime fighter. Instead, Maidana was nearly KO’d and barely survived a late fight Corley surge. Roach maintains his confidence is not from that performance, but rather Khan’s multi-faceted, boxer-puncher skills compared to Maidana’s limited, but effective slugging style.

“I think it was probably hard for him to get up for Corley,” Roach admitted. “I don’t know how hard he trained, but he’ll be at his best for Amir, because Amir is the best fighter in the world at his weight. We expect to see him how he looked in other fights, where he looked great. That’s what we’re ready for.”

Weighing in, Amir Khan expects to confuse Maidana with a mixture of boxing and pressure.

“There are going to be times when I put pressure on Maidana,” he revealed. “But we know he’s a come forward fighter, so other times we’ll want him to come looking for me.”

Khan-Maidana will air live on HBO Championship Boxing.